Hello
dear readers, today I would like to focus on religious themes,
inspired by a research of an American Ph.D.
A
recent study of Missouri University asserts that videogames quite
often clash with religions, so let's try to go deep within this
statement: the research comes from a Ph.D candidate in School of
Journalism named Greg Perreault, who utilizes as fulcrum of his study
the fact that videogames tend to put religions in a bad light, or to
consider them as an obstacle that needs to be suppressed by violent
means.
Violence
is the common way used on both sides: religions are violent, and the
mean used to defeat them is violence itself; at the Culture
Conference on Digital Religion, Perreault expressed which videogames
contain this problematic, mentioning Mass Effect 2, Final Fantasy
XIII, Assassin's Creed, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and The Elder
Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Let's now quote the researcher:
"In
most of these games there was a heavy emphasis on a 'Knights Templar'
and crusader motifs. Not only was the violent side of religion
emphasized, but in each of these games religion created a problem
that the main character must overcome, whether it is a direct
confrontation with religious zealots or being haunted by religious
guilt. It doesn’t appear that game developers are trying to
purposefully bash organized religion in these games. I believe they
are only using religion to create stimulating plot points in their
story lines. If you look at video games across the board, most of
them involve violence in some fashion because violence is conflict
and conflict is exciting. Religion appears to get tied in with
violence because that makes for a compelling narrative."
Perreault's
research goes back to two years ago, and it is only recently that he
answered a few questions posed to him by GamePolitics, curious to
know the exact methodology used to lead this study:
"I
spent somewhere between 30 and 70 hours with each game. I clocked in
the longest with Final Fantasy XIII because it just took so darn long
to figure out what was happening--if anyone actually knows. The
method I used was to play through each game, taking notes on key
themes that emerged. Then I went back through and performed a visual
analysis on specific scenes that had significant religious content."
GamePolitics
then asked if Perreault asserts that videogame creators are inspired
by narration techniques used on films and tv shows:
"I
think that writers in general find religion to be an interesting
topic because it is something that is key to people's motivations, to
their lives. There's a vast literature in Western society in books,
movies and television about what religion and what role it has in
society. As video games are telling deep and more compelling
narratives, I think they're just tapping into that conversation."
Perreault
then concluded the interview declaring some of his intentions:
"This
is part of some ongoing research that I'd like to continue and maybe
eventually make into a book--looking at religious depictions in
different eras of video games. Yes, I found that there was this
connection between religion and violence, but that's a conversation
that's been happening in Western society for centuries. In early
games like the Atari, it was hard to tell those stories. With the
dominance of Nintendo and their licensing process, we didn't see alot
of those stories--religious elements were mostly censored out of the
games. So it's fascinating to see how video games have entered the
conversation."
Perreault's
research is undoubtedly fascinating, and I can't wait to know more
about it; what I think is that videogames entering the debate was
inevitable, we are about to approach a phase in which religion's
stability is starting to waver, and the number of people able to
access scientific and philosophical contents which question religious
dogmas is increasing. Videogames are a well spread medium nowadays,
and its stories are sometimes more powerful than what you can find in
films or books, because they visually depict imagination and have
more impact on users; our inclination is to follow and embody these
charismatic heroes who find themselves to be opposed to religion, and
we incorporate their vision of the world. I do not fully agree with
Perreault's assertion that developers use religion as a mere support
for the story plot, without judging it: in some titles there is a
clear intention to be a detractor of dogmas and religious egemony,
usually non just and oppressing; it's sufficient to think of the
racism and cultural narrowness found in Final Fantasy X, where Albhed
people are treated as barbaric and emarginated by Yevonists (the fact
that these worshippers accuse Albheds of materialism and corruption
for creating machinas reminds me of the clash between Catholic Church
and science), and also the sacrifice and painful life of the
Summoners, true martyrs of religion who know of their imminent death,
but they have to endure the pilgrimage forced by moral duties,
honouring the hero Braska (Yuna even more than the others being his
daughter, and here we can see the theme of guilt, one of the major
tools used by, for example, Abrahamic religions to control men). It
is then that in these situations, individuals free from dogmas and
prejudices like Tidus have the chance to cure Spira, their world,
torn apart by Sin (very meanful name) but mostly by Yevonists, to be
considered worst than Sin itself, who punishes them for the lifestyle
they conduct.
Developers
can not only be detractors but they can also make fun of religions,
some examples to be found even in older games like Thief: The Dark
Project, first chapter of Thief series, which came out in stores in
1998 for PC: missions usually consist in looting all riches of
Hammerite's representatives (Hammerite is a secret cult, also called
The Order of the Hammer). Hammerite can be considered a mysterious
religion, carrying on illegal affairs in the City; Master Garrett's
objective is to show his superior intelligence, challenging vis-a-vis
the richest people as they know he is coming for them: they soon
barricate themselves in their manors, fully guarded. Garrett's
attitude is arrogant, and he somehow fights materialism with
materialism, an aspect much present in occidental religion, as it
serves as a mean to demonstrate power and authority; it appears that
the only mean to face this power is the deprivation of richness,
which passes in the hands of Garrett: the main difference between
them and him is that Garrett's pleasure is not derived by possessing
but from the very instant in which his hand grabs and pocket golds.
The Master Thief openly challenges authority, announcing himself just
before arriving, conscious that this is a perfect methodology to
scare off his enemies. The cherry on the top in Thief is the usage of
holy water in chapels to make zombies explode. Making fun or
challenging religion is less utilized in videogames, usually
developers prefer a more underhand approach, or opposing the two
sides on equal terms.
A
straightforward example of this is almost the entire saga of Final
Fantasy, in which there is a challenge not really towards religion
but against its personification: when the religious organization is
not appearing directly we still have a character whose ambition is to
become a god, feared and respected by everyone, or simply to destroy
existence for mere pleasure, having however a set of explanations for
this behaviour that are not to be revealed; an example is Exdeath
(from Final Fantasy V): he is a tree whose appearance is one of a
knight, and his aim is the realization of the void, obtaining
pleasure from endless erasing of existence and mostly himself. A
similar purpose can be found in 永遠の闇
Eien
no Yami- Eternal Darkness, better known as Necron or Trivia
(from Final Fantasy IX): he analyzed the foolish and homicidal
behaviour of Kuja, and established that life exists only in function
of death's research, so he wants to bring back the world to a "Zero
World Status" of permanent nothingness, similarly to 暗闇の雲
Kurayami
no Kumo - The Dark Cloud - Cloud
of Darkness (from Final Fantasy III). This entity wants to erase
existence following Xande's instability; Kuja and Xande are similar
characters, they both aim to be an immortal and absolute being,
inevitably opposing the protagonists, so we can suppose that Necron
and Cloud of Darkness respectively represent the essence of their
desire, fear and despair: these are weaknesses often used by
religious representatives to subjugate their devotees. All these
characters I've mentioned surely are less related to Perreault's
research, because they do not represent any religious movement or
organization, but in some ways they expect that their vision should
be accepted a priori by Nature and existence itself, embodying de
facto the religion of the Nothing, which supports nichilism.
At
this point, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Hironobu Sakaguchi
(creator of the Final Fantasy series and chief developer/producer of
some chapters) had something to say about deities, religions and
immortality concept, and I cannot accept that he wanted to use these
themes just to create engaging stories; I firmly believe instead that
he aimed to teach us something and warn us against dogmas and
absolutism, favouring individualism, freedom and respect for all
sentient and not sentient beings. This purpose can be traced down to
oriental philosophy and religion, much more animistic and "free"
if compared to Western ones, being unpopular with the idea of
rigidity and domination of a single deity: this results in Japanese
developer's tendency to voluntarily condemn this subject, as seen in
Xenoblade Chronicles, but we will focus on this game in the future,
because it needs much more in-depth analysis, being close to
transcendental limits.
Religion can also be seen as a
source of help in videogames, remaining an intentional medium of
teaching promoted by developers. Ōkami
is a plaudit to Shintō
tradition, which is not actually a religion but a series of rituals,
however at some degrees it has an organization and rules, besides
being strongly spiritual; in this precise case the protagonist of the
game is a deity, 天照大神
- Amaterasu
Ōmikami, who has to drive
away demons from the world. This appears to be an overturning of the
habit to oppose religion or organization similar to it from the hero
in videogames, and I don't feel like defining Ōkami
as a violent experience: on Perreault's study we speak of emphasized
violence, or at least pleasure derived from conflict; in Ōkami
instead, even if there are fights against demons, we feel like doing
something just and re-establishing the balance in the world, mainly
helping farmers to resolve problems related to earth and food. Being
Amaterasu means ensuring that all kamis, so natural elements, are in
harmony.
We
can all agree that Perreault's research mainly focuses on the games
he played/mentioned, but the statement over the challenge against
religions without design appears to be general, being his will to
write a book that traces a long path, crossing several videoludic
eras. My opinion is that most of developers aren't distancing
themselves from what they create, but they dwell into their stories
and hope that they will achieve to hand down something that goes
beyond mere gameplay and fun. Probably none (or a few of them) had
the courage to openly declare their opinions on these delicate
matters, maybe out of fear from criticism or censorship, given that
many institutions have the power to put a spanner in the works in
this sense. I must however admit that mystery and ambiguity are to be
appreciated, especially in the East, so in any case developers could
intentionally want the absence of interpretations and explanations on
evident matters. If we think about religion inherently including its
opposite and the negation of a different element which has to be
suppressed everything makes more sense: most religions identify the
main problems with evil, darkness, which we can consider as anything
not in accordance with dogmas; defeating the opposite could very well
lead to religion's extinction. Perreault may be summarizing violence
and conflict on the following idea: conflict equals opposition,
opposition equals religion, which appears to be more frequently on an
adversarial side; the result is the constant presence of religion in
violent or complicated situations, because it is its favourite method
for gaining consensus, especially in past times and especially in
Western countries. We can go beyond all this, even passing through
the idea of violence as a support for videogame development: violence
is relative, because it can exist independently as a mean to ensure
the system's subsistence, as if it were a necessity (possibly
revealing the Taoist concept of dualism, in which conflict and chaos
are vital aspects of the cosmos); to make a long story short,
conflict is often present as the only known mean to resolve problems,
especially when dialog has failed.
Religion
is the easiest problem to install, and it serves as a captivating
background and instill a precise idea to the player: having to deal
with such an important institution can guarantee compelling
storylines; this can be true, but it is hard to legimate or motivate
such a problem, risking to fall into banality or repetitiveness: an
example? The same Assassin's Creed mentioned by Perreault, thought as
a trilogy, transformed into one of the most commercial series of
gaming history, at the extent that Ubisoft is releasing one chapter
per year. We went from Abstergo and Templar's mysteries, already
fully debated but included in an interesting environment, to the
boredom of Assassin's Creed III, as the worth of the problem
culminated and expired with Ezio's trilogy, real fulcrum of the
series. Assassin's Creed remains one of the most relevant examples of
religion used as a mean to victory or as opposition, both strongly
desired by a multicultural team, composed of various creeds, who has
visited every part of the world to ensure architectural and cultural
accuracy of cities and countries which hosted Assassin's Creed
chapters.
You
can find the complete interview on GamePolitics.
Here
you can jump to his website, which also has his portfolio.
Update
of 16/02/2015
I've
just finished translating the article in English, and I'm almost
ready to send it to Perreault; during the translation other details
came to mind and I will explain them in this update.
I
was intensely thinking about the violence concept expressed by
Perreault, and making a brief evaluation I noticed that developer's
approach on this theme depends on their culture and social
background. If we stop and think at the games mentioned in the study,
we immediately notice that they all are produced in the west
(excluding Final Fantasy XIII, but it gets close to western concepts
in its style and gameplay mechanics), while the games I analyzed are
mostly from the east. This could lead to an interesting research on
the different approach to violence/religion between east and west,
where the first expresses less explicit violence and more hidden and
positive aspects, while the latter has a direct and rough approach,
in line with Perreault's logic.
Western
culture needs a strong input to reach the desired degree of
entertainment, because society demands it: the clash has to be
present and obvious, giving no chance of interpretation; west also
needs to free itself from religious egemony, which dominated the
masses for several centuries, influencing their way of living: the
most important instruments to reach this freedom are digital mediums
and the Internet, where all cultures are held and where anyone is
free to consult and make his own idea.
Eastern
culture instead maintains habits and respect of traditions, with a
minor need to battle with the past; religions and philosphies are
usually treated in a positive and acclaimed way, and when criticism
arises it usually refers to aspects of western cultures.
Coming
from cultures so different, developers have many ways of approaching
and applying certain concepts.
This
could be a starting point for a more complete research, but I'll need
to play and analyze other titles that are underlining these
differences we spoke of (for example Asura's Wrath, other chapters of
Thief, Darksiders, Xenosaga etc.).
